The present invention relates to a mower having a plurality of cutting blades driven via vertical shafts inside a mower deck, in particular to such mower suitable for effecting a mulching operation.
Examples of such mower as noted above are known from JP 2004-41060 and JP 2004-350630. In these, a mulching baffle is mounted to a mower designed for a side discharging mode operation, with a cut grass discharging outlet provided at a lateral end of a deck, and cutting chambers each having an approximately circular shape along a rotational path of the leading end of each cutting blade are formed so as to allow the mower to effect a mulching operation also.
More particularly, in the case of the mower described in JP 2004-41060, a mulching baffle is mounted so as to partition the plurality of juxtaposed cutting chambers from each other, so that cut grass can be mulched in each cutting chamber, as being carried in and out of the respective cutting chambers. In the case of the mower described in JP 2004-350630, a plurality of cutting chambers formed in juxtaposition with attachment of the mulching baffle are communicated with each other through an opening. However, the shape of opening portion of the mulching baffle is designed so as to prevent flow of cut grass in each cutting chamber into a cutting chamber adjacent thereto.
As described above, with the conventional mulching operation, cut grass is cut in each one of the plural cutting chambers, so the grass is cut repeatedly. However, cut grass will flow in the rotational direction of the cutting blade as being conveyed by an air current generated by the rotating blade. Hence, the cutting blade needs to cut the cut grass which is moving in the same direction as this blade. Therefore, it was difficult to effect a mulching operation of the cut grass in an efficient manner.